3 of 4 Dem candidates for Senate already running TV ads

The television airwaves are becoming an important battleground in the race for the US Senate seat in Illinois. One new campaign ad is based on the battle earlier this year to save the Hartmarx clothing company.It wasn't supposed to be like this until January, but three of the four Illinois Democratic candidates for US Senate have already launched their broadcast television campaigns.

The Giannoulias ad was filmed inside the Hartmarx factory in Chicago. It recalls how earlier this year the Illinois treasurer threatened to remove $8 billion worth of state deposits from Wells Fargo if the bank went ahead with its plan to liquidate the bankrupt factory.

"We sent a message to this bank. If you want to do business in Illinois, you have to save these jobs," the ad says. "The bankers, the lobbyists, the power-brokers, they've owned Washington for too long."

Candidate David Hoffman began his broadcast television campaign Wednesday. He will spend tens of thousands of dollars initially, trying to familiarize voters, especially those downstate, with Hoffman's record as Chicago's inspector general, the city's top corruption fighter.

"You see, I've always been independent from the politicians and insiders who protect each other. And I've never backed down from what I knew was right," Hoffman says in his ad.

Hoffman and Giannoulias followed Jacob Meister to broadcast television, where the Chicago attorney's campaign began airing commercials downstate in mid-November.

"The economy and jobs, jobs, jobs-- because that's what the people of Illinois really care about," Meister's ad says.

The only candidate without a television campaign is former Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson. But she was joined by television actress Tracee Ellis Ross during a live appearance Thursday at Chicago's Robeson High School trying to reduce the rate of teenaged pregnancies there.